Author(s) This pre-registration is currently anonymous to enable blind peer-review. It has one author.
Pre-registered on 03/22/2022 12:48 PM (PT)
1) Have any data been collected for this study already? No, no data have been collected for this study yet.
2) What's the main question being asked or hypothesis being tested in this study? Participants will be asked to imagine they are volunteers for a crisis counseling nonprofit, and randomly assigned to compare 2 emails (labeled Email 1 and Email 2) with different goal framings. The possible goal framings are: some hours of volunteering every week vs. 4 hours of volunteering every week, some hours of volunteering every week vs. 8 hours of volunteering every two weeks, or 4 hours of volunteering every week vs. 8 hours of volunteering every two weeks. We will test for differences in how these 3 possible goal framings are perceived.
3) Describe the key dependent variable(s) specifying how they will be measured. We have five dependent variables, all of which are measured using 6-point Likert scales (1 = Definitely Email 1, 6 = Definitely Email 2). For each scale, we will standardize each item and then average across the standardized items
Procrastination
Which email would make you more likely to put off your crisis counseling goals until the end of the year?
Which email would make you more likely to forget about your crisis counseling goals until the end of the year?
Self-efficacy
Which email would make you more confident that you will be able to achieve your crisis counseling goals?
Which email would make you more likely to see yourself as capable of achieving your crisis counseling goals?
Goal commitment
Which email would make you feel more strongly committed to pursuing your crisis counseling goals?
Which email would make you take your crisis counseling goals more seriously?
Goal flexibility
Which recommendation would make you feel like you had more flexibility in how to complete your 200-hour commitment?
Goal proximity
Which email would make you feel more like you should volunteer in the next week?
4) How many and which conditions will participants be assigned to? Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the following three pairs of goal framings contained in Email 1 and Email 2:
1. some hours of volunteering every week vs. 4 hours of volunteering every week
2. some hours of volunteering every week vs. 8 hours of volunteering every two weeks
3. 4 hours of volunteering every week vs. 8 hours of volunteering every two weeks
5) Specify exactly which analyses you will conduct to examine the main question/hypothesis. We will run one-sample t-tests for each dependent variable within each pair of goal framings (listed in (4)) to test for differences compared to the scale midpoint of 3.5
6) Describe exactly how outliers will be defined and handled, and your precise rule(s) for excluding observations. Only participants who pass the initial attention checks will be allowed to proceed with the survey. Those who fail the attention checks are never randomized into a condition.
If a participant takes the survey multiple times (we will compare their panel IDs), we will only include their first attempt.
7) How many observations will be collected or what will determine sample size? No need to justify decision, but be precise about exactly how the number will be determined. We will collect 900 participants on MTurk after accounting for exclusions for multiple survey attempts.
8) Anything else you would like to pre-register? (e.g., secondary analyses, variables collected for exploratory purposes, unusual analyses planned?) N/A
